Oman

Muscat: Indian customs department have started to issue issued new detailed customs form to passengers on their arrival while visiting the country from Wednesday.

According to the department, the new move will help authorities check duty frauds and cases of under-valuation as well keep a record of gold jewellery and bullion being brought into the country.

However, from Wednesday, Indian citizens will have to fill up immigration form only while their departure. "There will not be any immigration form for Indians returning from abroad," official sources said.

Meanwhile, the new 'Indian Customs Declaration Form' carries additional fields for declaration of dutiable and prohibited goods and seeks details different from the detachable perforated strip which is part of the immigration card at the moment.

For the first time, travellers would be asked to specifically declare any prohibited articles, gold jewellery (over free allowance), gold bullion and Indian currency exceeding Rs7,500 (OMR46.62) in the new form.

The passengers will have to give details of countries visited in the past six days and mention their passport numbers on the new form, which was not there earlier.

Whereas, old fields like declaration of satellite phone, foreign currency exceeding USD5,000 (OMR1,924) or equivalent, aggregate value of foreign exchange including currency exceeding USD10,000 (OMR3,848) or equivalent, meat, meat products, dairy products, fish or poultry products and seeds, plants, fruits, flowers and other planting material have been retained in the new format.

The passengers will also have to give details of baggage being carried by them in a separate column instead of pieces of hand baggage and checked in baggage separately.

Last April, a new rule was implemented allowing passenger who has been abroad for a year or more then he or to bring in jewellery up to a prescribed limit.

For men, the prescribed amount is gold jewellery worth Rs50,000 (OMR 310.949) and for women the prescribed carrying amount is gold jewellery worth Rs1lakh. Earlier, the limits were gold worth Rs10,000 (OMR62.1899 ) for men and worth Rs20,000 (OMR124.380 ) for women.

Last August, the customs also implemented 35 per cent duty on television sets brought by non-resident Indians (NRIs) to the country from aboard. Earlier, NRIs were able to bring in TVs without paying duty.